Norway winner of SMS European championships

2006-08-16

Telia’s compilation of SMS traffic during the European athletics championships shows that Norwegians sent the most SMS messages. The traffic showed a clear correlation between the number of athletic feats and an increased number of text messages to the achievers’ respective countries.

Telia’s compilation of the SMS traffic to European countries from the host city of Gothenburg during the European athletics championships August 6-13 shows that the traffic to a number of countries increased markedly on the days the countries’ athletes made an extraordinary performance at Ullevi.

In spite of their marginal successes at the European athletics championships, most SMS messages were sent to Norway. Every seventh message sent from Gothenburg to countries outside of Sweden during the European athletics championships went to Norway.

”Norway is a technologically advanced country and Norwegians are experienced, advanced mobile phone users. Many Norwegians visit Gothenburg due to its close proximity, making for high mobile traffic,” says Indra Åsander, manager in charge of TeliaSonera Sweden’s consumer market.

Second place in the SMS European cup goes to the United Kingdom, winners of the men’s’ 4x100 meter relay on the last day of the event. The statistics clearly show that Britons wanted contact with home after the medal. On Sunday, more SMS messages was sent to the UK than to Norway.

In comparison to Finland’s uneventful Monday, SMS traffic to Finland doubled on Friday, August 10 when Jukka Keskisalo won Finland’s only gold medal in the men’s 3000 meter steeplechase.